Grateful-day
by Taisi
Summary: "Some countries take a day to celebrate all the things they're grateful for, and they call it Thanksgiving Day." (In which Robin introduces a new holiday to the ecstatic Luffy, who has about eight things he's grateful for. Nakamaship.)


"Thanksgiving?"

"Yes," Robin says, smiling. "Some countries take a day to celebrate all the things they're grateful for, and they call it Thanksgiving Day."

Luffy's positively delighted, beaming at her from where he's perched on the library table. "Celebrating the good stuff? That's great! And it's today?"

"Tomorrow," she corrects fondly. "Will you be celebrating too?"

"Yeah, it sounds like fun!" He hops down, a hand flying to his hat to keep it on his head, and runs out the door, calling gleefully over his shoulder, "I have so much to be grateful for!"

* * *

"Ne, Brook!"

The skeleton turns at the dear voice like it's a conductor's cue, and is fortunately prepared to catch the rubber rocket flying toward him. Luffy laughs at the successful landing and squirms in the musician's arms until he's able to throw his own around Brook's neck.

"Did you know? I wanted to find a musician first!" he tells him and Brook laughs.

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yeah! But I'm glad I didn't, cause I ended up meeting you instead!" Luffy hugs him, and the smile's loud in his voice as he continues, "My Brook!"

And with an armful of his captain, Brook can't think of a thing to say.

* * *

Franky's laughing fit to burst at the way Luffy's rolling around, failed attempt at winning the Cola Chugging Contest he'd initiated on a whim obviously not agreeing with his bloated stomach.

"Hey come on now," the cyborg manages, "you shoulda known that's one thing you can't beat me at!" When Luffy only moans, Franky chuckles. "You're a crazy guy, straw hat. Hell, all of you are."

Luffy looks at him upside down, and grins. "But you came along. That means you're crazy too! And more than that- you helped save Robin, and you built us this great ship! You're a great guy, and super cool builder, and a really, really great friend!"

The shipwright bursts into tears, and Luffy laughs.

"What are you crying for, idiot?"

"I just- I freaking love you, man." When Luffy jumps up for a hug Franky wraps an arm around him, surreptitiously wipes his eyes, and hugs him tighter still when Luffy giggles by his ear.

* * *

Robin's sitting at the kitchen table with a book and Sanji's quiet company when Luffy bursts in. The cook sighs, getting up to prepare a snack, but Luffy breezes straight past him to Robin.

Sanji blinks as Robin laughs conspiratorially and tilts her head to the side to accept a kiss on the cheek.

"What?!" Sanji snaps, grabbing the closest thing to him which turned out to be a rubber spatula and smacking his captain on the head with it. "Oi, shitty rubber! What's the idea?"

Luffy pouts at him, arms strung around Robin's shoulders, and says, "What, Sanji? You can be grateful too." Robin laughs again, effectively taking the wind out of Sanji's sails, and the cook frowns without ire.

"What are you talking about?"

Luffy grins. "Don't you know? Today is grateful-day!" He disentangles himself from Robin and jumps over the table to grab Sanji, wrapping rubber arms around him twice over when the startled chef initially tries to dodge the reach.

When he realizes it's a hug he lets Luffy hang there, disgruntled. "Oi, what are you-"

"I'm really, really glad I met you! I'm glad you left that little restaurant to join my crew, and I'm _really lucky _'cause I got the _best _cook. Thanks for being my nakama!" He beams, pauses, and lights up again. "Oh and thank you for saving me when I fall in the water!"

Robin's laughing again, covering her mouth with her book, because Sanji's face is flushed by the time Luffy's done, and he doesn't know whether to be pleased or touched and ends up just looking embarrassed.

"What the hell am I supposed to say to all that?" he mutters, and Luffy grins.

* * *

Luffy finds Usopp and Chopper fishing. He scoops Chopper up and hugs him tight, the way he's prone to do; and Chopper flails for a second in surprise, then as he realizes who it is, he smiles widely and cheers, "Luffy!"

Usopp hops off the railing, leans the fishing pole against it. "Hey Luffy!"

"Hehe, hey guys- I have something important to tell both of you," Luffy says, voice and face suddenly very serious. Usopp gulps, and he and Chopper share a quick look of apprehension.

"Wh... what is it Luffy?"

The serious attitude can't hold for long, and Luffy is grinning again as he says, "I'm thankful for you both!" They look nonplussed, and he laughs outright. "I'm really really happy you're here with me! You both left behind your homes to come and be my nakama, and even when you get scared you never, ever abandon me." He reaches out to pull Usopp in with one arm, hugging the two of them tight. "I'm such a lucky guy!"

They both have tears in their eyes, but as Chopper starts to cry and declare something along the lines of, "you bastard, saying that doesn't make me happy to be your friend, shut up," Usopp just hugs the rubber boy back as hard as he possibly can.

"You have it backwards," he mutters, and Luffy doesn't hear him.

* * *

Nami blinks when her captain leans down over her map-table to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"What was that for, Luffy?"

He grins, and plops his hat on her head.

"A long time ago I trusted you with my treasure," he tells her, "and then you trusted me with yours."

She stares at him, heart beating loudly in her ears.

He sits on the edge of the table, and he doesn't smudge the ink or upset the papers, he just kicks his feet like a little kid and smiles at her like he's never known hurt.

"And then you came with me on this adventure! I'm really, really happy. Thanks, Nami."

She tugs the hat over her eyes the way she's seen him do a hundred times, hiding her eyes from him and biting her lip hard against tears. She hears him chuckle.

"You can hold onto it for awhile."

* * *

"Hey, Zoro."

The swordsman opens his eye, and isn't alarmed in the slightest to find his captain's face mere inches from his own, and upside down to boot. He only closes it again, not moving from his napping position leaned up against Sunny's railing.

"What is it, Luffy?"

"Remember the day I met you?"

He smirks, doesn't have to look at his captain to see the grin on his face, and replies, "How could I forget."

That marine yard, and the hunger, and the strange rubber boy who showed up one day, seem like a whole lifetime ago.

He doesn't know where he'd be if Luffy had never blackmailed him into this adventure, but he knows where he _is, _and where he's been, and what he's done, and he knows exactly how much of it he has to thank Luffy for.

"That was a good day for me."

And what he knows is what's important, not things that might have been once upon a time; and he knows there isn't a _second _of this mad, strawhatted adventure that he would trade for anything.

"Yeah, me too, captain."

* * *

At dinner, Luffy's tucking in happily, gnawing on rib bone like an animal while Zoro watches him with partial interest and Robin sips a cup of tea calmly.

The others are quiet; Nami's still wearing Luffy's hat, and no one even has to ask her why since she's got the same dazed, conflicted expression as the rest of them do. Sanji, for once, doesn't even have a barb about letting food get cold.

It's Usopp who finally bites the bullet. "Hey, Luffy... earlier, what was that all about?"

"Eh? What was what?"

"You know- all the hugs and- stuff," the sniper says lamely. Luffy blinks at him, then understanding dawns on his face with a wide grin.

"Robin told me!" he chirps, waving a fork. "Today's grateful-day!"

"Grateful-day?" Franky asks, raising an eyebrow at the historian. "That doesn't sound like a thing."

"It's called 'Thanksgiving Day,'" she clarifies, smiling. "And in some parts of the world, it is most certainly a 'thing.' I told Luffy about it yesterday, and he thought it sounded like fun."

"And it was fun!" Luffy declared. "I had no idea there was a day just for celebrating the stuff you're thankful for! That's so cool! I got to celebrate my nakama all day long."

"That's not fair," Nami snaps at him. "We didn't get to celebrate _our _treasure at all!"

"Why don't we just celebrate our treasures every day?" Brook wonders aloud, and Luffy leaps at the idea.

"That's a great idea! Every day can be grateful-day!"

"Luffy, focus," Sanji snaps, tapping the table to get the boy's attention back. "You heard what Nami said, right? What kind of shitty move was that, leaving us out of the loop?"

"Yeah, I did," Luffy says, and has the decency to look ashamed. "Sorry, sorry! We can take turns. On our _next _grateful day, we'll celebrate your treasures instead!"

"Idiot," Nami says without heat. She reaches over to put his hat on his head, and lingers for an extra moment to cup his face in her hand. "We all have the same treasure, you know."

"Ah? You do?"

"We do," Robin confirms, and since Robin knows approximately everything, Luffy's eyes go wide.

"What is it? What's the treasure? It must be _amazing!_"

They look at him; he blinks at the sudden, silent scrutiny.

"If you can't guess," Sanji says quietly, almost overcome with love for the idiot rubber boy who'd adopted them all, "then you'll just have to wait and find out."

* * *

_(A/N: Happy grateful-day to all my lovely readers!)_


End file.
